Electronic equipment having stackable housings with a printed circuit board extending from one housing into another housing

ABSTRACT

An electronic equipment has a housing structure formed by a first housing, a supplemental housing attached on one wall surface of the first housing, a base printed circuit board being inserted in the first housing, a PC bus plug connector being mounted on the base printed circuit board, the first housing and the supplemental housing having openings aligned with the PC bus plug connector, and an additional printed circuit board, such as an adapter card, being inserted in the PC bus plug connector and extending through the apertures into the supplemental housing. This adapter card has additional plug connectors which are arranged to lie in both the first-mentioned housing and the supplemental housing to receive supplemental printed circuit boards provided in each of these housings.

This application is a 371 of PCT/DE97/01394.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a housing for PC-based electronic equipmenthaving a base printed circuit board with a printed circuit bus plugconnector for an additional printed circuit board being received in thehousing with the additional printed circuit board extendingperpendicular to the base printed circuit board and having at least oneadditional plug connection for a supplementary printed circuit board,and to electronic equipment having such a housing.

A housing of the mentioned type for PC-based control equipment is knownfrom WO 95/14367 A1. A base printed circuit board is disposed thereinparallel to the floor plate of the housing, onto which printed circuitboard an AT bus adaptor card aligned perpendicular thereto is fitted.The latter is equipped with two plug connectors, into which in each caseone supplementary printed circuit board can be inserted. Thesupplementary printed circuit boards are aligned parallel to the baseprinted circuit board.

The number of supplementary printed circuit boards is limited only bythe number of plug connectors on the AT bus adaptor card; however, itdetermines the height or length of the AT bus adaptor card and thus theheight of the housing. Accordingly, in each case it is necessary toprovide a housing which offers space for the maximum required number ofsupplementary printed circuit boards. Accordingly, in many practicalapplications an unnecessarily large and thus costly housing is used.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is accordingly to specify a housing forPC-based electronic equipment, which is designed for minimal equippingwith supplementary printed circuit boards but offers a simplepossibility of extension with respect to the number of supplementaryprinted circuit boards.

A housing wall opposite the base printed circuit board having anaperture through which a portion of the additional printed circuit boardor adapter card plugged into the bus plug connector of the base printedcircuit board can extend through and which portion has at least oneadditional plug connector for the supplementary printed circuit board.

A base printed circuit board to be aligned parallel to a first housingwall can be inserted into the housing, on which base printed circuitboard a PC bus plug connector for an adaptor card which can be fitted toextend normal to the printed circuit board, is disposed. An aperture isformed in the housing wall opposite the first housing wall, throughwhich aperture, when the base printed circuit board has been inserted,an adaptor card inserted into the PC bus plug connector is able toprotrude at least by a part of its surface. The aperture can be formedas a slot in the housing wall, but can also be by omission of thishousing wall.

In the case of the use of an adaptor card which is designed for minimalequipping of the housing with supplementary printed circuit boards andwhich accordingly does not protrude from the housing, the aperture canbe closed off by a cover plate. The same applies if an adaptor card isdispensed with. The cover plate is preferably releasably connected tothe housing, for example by screws or a detent connection. This permitssubsequent equipping of the arrangement with further or additionalsupplementary printed circuit boards.

In a further refinement of the invention, a supplementary housing can befitted onto the housing wall provided with the aperture, and a housingsurface of which supplementary housing the is then adjacent to the firsthousing is being provided with a housing opening which leaves theaperture free. The housing opening is cut out from a wall of thesupplementary housing, which wall faces the first housing, andcorresponds in its dimensions to the aperture in the wall of the firsthousing. However, it can also be formed by omission of a housing firstwall of the supplementary housing, so that the supplementary housing isdesigned as cover hood for a space enclosed between it and the firsthousing. The supplementary housing is to be releasably secured to thefirst housing, for which purpose a screw connection or detent connectioncan again be used.

Further particular features and advantages of the invention as well asthe use thereof in the case of electronic equipment are described in thetext which follows with reference to an illustrative embodiment shown inthe drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of electronic equipment having ahousing/supplementary housing combination in exploded representation,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of the electronicequipment in a maximal configuration,

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of the electronicequipment in a minimal configuration, and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a housing wall providedwith an aperture.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a PC-based electronic equipment 10 having a casingconsisting of a parallelepipedic housing 12 and a supplementary housing14, in a exploded representation. The housing has six housing walls: afloor 16, a cover plate 18 as well as side walls 20, only two of whichcan be seen in FIG. 1. An aperture 22 has been cut out from the coverplate 18.

The supplementary housing 14 is likewise parallelepipedic and has afloor surface or plate 24 corresponding to the cover plate 18. In thefloor plate 24 of the supplementary housing 14 there is formed a housingopening 26 which--as can be seen by reference to the chain-dottedoutlines--is in alignment with the aperture 22. The aperture 22 and thehousing opening 26 can also be shaped differently, and the floor plate24 can also be entirely absent. What is essential is merely that, whenthe supplementary housing 14 has been fitted onto the housing 12, theresultant clear width of a passage bounded by the margins of theaperture 22 or of the housing opening 26 permits the passage of anadaptor card 32 which is described hereinbelow.

A base printed circuit board 28 is built into the housing 12, parallelto the floor 16. This base printed circuit board is equipped with a PCbus plug connector 30, which is disposed on the base printed circuitboard 28 in such a way that an adaptor card 32 inserted into it is ableto protrude through the aperture 26. A first partial surface 34 of theadaptor card 32 lies within the housing 12, while a second partialsurface or portion 36 of the adaptor card 32 protrudes out of theaperture 22 and, when the supplementary housing 14 has been fitted ontothe housing 12, portion 36 protrudes into said supplementary housing.The partial surfaces 34, 36 of the adaptor card 32 are equipped on bothsides with second plug connectors 38 and third plug connectors 40respectively.

In FIG. 2, the above-described arrangement is diagrammaticallyrepresented in a sectioned side elevation, with maximal equipping withsupplementary printed circuit boards 42, 44. Supplementary printedcircuit boards 42 are inserted into the second plug connectors 38situated in the housing 12 and supplementary printed circuit boards 44are inserted into the third plug connectors 40 embraced by thesupplementary housing 14, in such a way that they are aligned parallelto the base printed circuit board 28.

In FIG. 3, electronic equipment 10' with supplementary printed circuitboards 42 is diagrammatically represented in a sectioned side elevation.An adaptor card 32' has been inserted into the PC bus plug connector 30,the height of the adaptor card 32' does not exceed the space availableabove the base printed circuit board 28 in the housing 12. Twosupplementary printed circuit boards 42 have been inserted into thesecond plug connectors 38 situated on the adaptor card 32'.

FIG. 4 shows, in an enlarged section, that region of the cover plate 18in FIG. 3 which is situated above the adaptor card 32'. The aperture 22is closed off by a cover plate 46 at the same level as the cover plate18. The cover plate 46 abuts against abutments 48 which, in the interiorof the housing 12, are connected to the cover plate 18, for example bywelding or adhesive bonding. The cover plate 46 is releasably secured onthe abutments 48 by means of screws 50.

The electronic equipment 10 may comprise, for example, the electronicsbox of a PC-based cash register or of an office computer. In this case,the computer unit is accommodated on a base printed circuit board 28. Inthe case of such equipment, it is frequently sufficient to provide oneor two supplementary printed circuit boards, which may, for example,carry supplementary circuits which are specific to a point of sale or anetwork. In this case, equipping in accordance with FIG. 3 issufficient. If, however, such equipment is to be responsible for furtherfunctions, then, in a simple manner, the cover plate 46 may be removedand the short adaptor card 32' may be replaced by a higher or longeradaptor card 32, which, besides the second plug connectors 38, isequipped with third plug connectors 40. The supplementary housing 14 isfitted onto the housing 12. The supplementary printed circuit boards 42can, as previously, be disposed in the housing 12, while furthersupplementary printed circuit boards 44 can be inserted into the thirdplug connectors 40 of the second partial surface 36 of the adaptor card32, which partial surface protrudes into the supplementary housing 14.

Since all assemblies required for the operation of a PC are to beaccommodated in the housing 12, the supplementary housing 14 has merelythe function of a cover. Accordingly, it can be constructed in verysimple fashion. On the other hand, however, it is also possible toaccommodate peripheral systems such as, for example, supplementarymagnetic disk drives, a window scanner for bar code detection or anemergency power supply, in the supplementary housing 14.

I claim:
 1. An electronic equipment having a first housing, a base printed circuit board being inserted in said first housing, a PC bus plug connector being mounted on said base printed circuit board, a further printed circuit board being mounted in said PC bus plug connector to extend perpendicular from the base printed circuit board, said further printed circuit board having at least one additional plug connector, and a supplemental printed circuit board being inserted in said supplemental connector, a first housing wall of said first housing having an aperture aligned with the PC bus plug connector, a supplemental housing being mounted on the first housing wall, a portion of the further printed circuit board inserted into the PC plug connector extending out of the aperture of said first housing wall and into the supplemental housing and said portion having at least one of the additional plug connectors.
 2. An electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the further printed circuit board is an adapter card.
 3. A housing structure for a PC bus electronic equipment comprising a first housing having a first housing wall, a second housing wall and a base printed circuit board, a further printed circuit board, a PC bus plug connector being mounted on the base printed circuit board for receiving the further printed circuit board, which extend vertically to the base printed circuit board, said further printed circuit board having at least one additional plug connector, and at least a supplemental printed circuit board being inserted in said additional plug connector, said housing having an aperture in the second housing wall overlying the PC bus plug connector, a supplemental housing fitted on the second housing wall and having an opening aligned with the aperture, said further printed circuit board having a length greater than the height of the first housing and having a part protruding into the supplemental housing, said part carrying at least one additional plug connector which is arranged in the supplemental housing.
 4. A housing structure according to claim 3, in which the aperture can be closed off by a cover plate.
 5. A housing structure according to claim 4, wherein the cover plate is releasably connected to the housing.
 6. A housing structure according to claim 3, in which the supplemental housing is to be releasably secured to the first-mentioned housing.
 7. A housing structure according to claim 3, wherein the base printed circuit board is mounted to extend parallel to the first housing wall.
 8. A housing structure according to claim 7, in which the aperture can be closed off by a cover plate.
 9. A housing structure according to claim 8, in which the cover plate is releasably connected to the housing.
 10. A housing structure according to claim 7, wherein the supplemental housing is to be releasably secured to the first-mentioned housing. 